Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-08-27
IN RoUsDoN BAY.

wild among these wonders, learning every
day to feel their beauty more, vas Pleas
ance Noel There are plenty of Noels in
Dorsetshire, but none of my. kin in Lyme.
Nor do I know how l came to be born
there, nor anything about my mother, who
died when I was born; nor much about
my father, who was q ship carpenter by
rank and calling. 1 was born,I believe,
In the year n thousand seven hundred
and eighty-seven. I never had q birthday,
because no one cared to remember such an
Insignificant circumstance as the birth of
a sailors child. Ny father went down in
eighty-nine on board the Invincible, which
foundered in heavy gale off Jamaica, with
all hands except two or three. These
managed to get to land, or to be picked
up, I forget which, and told the disastrous
story.
Dan CULVER came to my help, being al
ways the most kind hearted of men, and,
besides, q friend of my fathers. Helyed
at Rousdon, which is three miles and a
half from Lyme, being then a widower
with W boys living, two OF three years
older than myself.
There are q good many Gullivers in Dor
read "Gulliver's Travels it was the more
SASA AS -OCSouoO 1 WA -6O1S OAdU.ESuo
honest captain must have come, from my
part Of the country, and 1 was equally
sure that in appearance he greatly resem-
bled Dan.
Nobody, except his sons aver called him
anything else but Dan. Not MI. GULL
yer, or Daniel Gulliver, but plain Dan.
As early as I can remember him he had
gray hair. He was a man of middle
height and strong hnild, with immense
hands; he had a face covered all over
with crows foot wrinkles, and it had
the kindlfest and gentlest expression
that can dwell upon human countenance;
his light blue eyes rested upon one when
he spoke, as il he loved to look upon his
friend; he was as incapable of thinking or
speaking evil as of doing it. Therefore he
was everybody's friend. 1 suppose he
knew very little of evil, living as he did
upon his seaboard farm, as remote from
the world and US little suspicious of dan
ger a did those poor men of Laish, who
''dwelt after the manner of the Zidonians,
quiet and secure" ,
His estate consisted of a patrimonial
ten acre slip, lying chiefly along the cliff.
1t was a poor piece Of land, which grew
scanty crops, hardly worth the trouble of
cultivation; but it gave occupation to the
two boys, Job and Jephthah, md to the
one farm laborer whom we employed,
Isaac Agus; Dan himself looked after the
boats, of course. If the land was poor,
the farm house and yards showed every
sign of prosperity. There were pigs
which grunted in the sites or roamed
about the yards, grubbing among roots
with philanthropic resolve to waste no
time in becoming good pork; fowls which
laid eggs and chuckled over them; ducks
which drove broods of little soft yellow
balls, which might have been cocoons had
they not been live things, into the pond;
geese, on the waste of land, which cackled
to each other encouragement to get fat
come Michaelmas; and there were the
most generous of cows in the matter Of
milk. The dairy where Mrs. Agus and
l made butter was always full of cream
and milk; there were hay ricks, plows,
fails, carts, harrows and all the signs Of
successful cultivation.
The twin boys, Job and Jephthah, were,
like their father, of middle height, with
broad shoulders and big hands; they were
as exactly like each other as a pair OF
Chisamen; but when you came to live in
the house, you learned gradually to dis
tinguish certain little differences not appa-
rent to strangers. Outside the farm no one
knew Jephthah from Job, and addressed
either ut random rs Job or Jephthah. They
had blue eyes, like their. father, light
brown hair and q gentle way, which they
inherited. But they exaggerated the pa
ternal characteristics. His gentleness be-
came, with them, sl0wness; his tact
turnity became absolute dumbness.
The most frequent visitor was Joshua
Mech, Dams nephew. He was a miller
at Up Lyme. When I was sixteen he
must have been about six and twenty
some seven years older than the boys.
He, too, was strongly built. and we'll pro.
p%ortioned, but he had the other Dorset
shire face-not that of the Gullivers.
Everybody knows that there are two faces
in Dorsetshire-that with blue eyes and
brown hair, a round face, and that with
dark hair and dark eyes, an oval face;
sometimes very beautiful, but sometimes
%forbidding and harsh. Joshua's face had
the latter character. His eyes were too
close together; his expression was threat.
ening; his chin too long and square; his
manner was imperative. He was a mas
terful man, a'man who always got what
he wanted; if he desired a thing, he said
he should have it, and he got it. The his.
tory that follows, however, is that Of q
thing which he desired vehemently and
did not get. Another visitor, and the
only other friend Of the family, was the
rector of Rousdon, the Rev. Benjamin
Burden.
Rousdon parish contained a population
Of eleven souls, six Of whom came from
Rousdon Farm. Its yearly value was
EDS. There was also q house with q btt
of glebe land. The house was q cottage;
the globe land was q garden cultivated by
the rector himself. He had an orchard,
the apples of which he sold for cider, g
fruit and vegetable garden, two or three
pigs, some fowls, and sometimes, the gift
Of his church warden, some ducks. He
wa q bachelor and lived entirely alone in
his cottage. His church wa q barn with
. thatched roof, kept from falling down
by Dan and the boys. The old pews wez<
worm eaten; the pulpit was lettering; the
broken windows were repaired with oiled
paper; the covers were dropping of the
church Bible and prayer book; his sur
plice was in rags; there was no church
plate; and the one weekly service was 8
duet between himself and Dan, who wal
at once his clerk and his church warden.
The old rector wore a wig on Sundays; or
other days he tied up his head in a hand
kerchief; he never forgot his cloth or wen,
without a cassock, though that garment
was in rags; he had the dignity of hi
profession, though he had forgotten al
his learning, ceased to take any delight II
books, and was nothing but q gardener, q
rustic and q peasant priest.
Our house. at the back Of which lay thu